Holding His Breath Half To Death
by francis2
Summary: POV of David Mineo, the teenage vampire in Arrested Development. Spoilers for ep 1x05


**Holding his breath half to death**

POV: David, the teen vampire

Disclaimer: Moonlight doesn't belong to me, but to Joel Silver and Warner Brothers. I just play with the characters. I incorporated some of the lyrics of „The Bird and The Worm" by The Used, the song that was playing at the rollercoaster scene. Those words aren't mine.

Spoilers for Arrested Development (episode 5).

Hanging around is the favorite pastime of teenies, so I heard. But this was a bit much. Holding fast onto a bolder, hanging upside down like a bat, under a sun drenched and salt impregnated pier in f-cking Los Angeles, while waiting for the sun to go down was not the way I wanted to spend this afternoon. Almost want to scream my anger at the sea, but I would risk someone noticing I'm here, so I turn to stone and hold my breath.

What I wanted was just a bit of fun with a beautiful girl. Man, I get hard just thinking about her bosom. Maybe I could have had something extra afterwards, after the rides. Which didn't go so well last time, damn her and her crude "No,honey" slapping me in the face, like I was some kid she could dismiss with a wave of her hand. I didn't want to kill her. I just wanted some fun, fooling around; isn't that what you do when you love someone? But she was terrified of me, and I was terrified of what's inside of me, and I slapped her, and then she bled and I was out of my mind and couldn't stop. I wanted to crawl into her, become her baby, but she screamed and thrashed, so I had to push her until she was quiet.

I know I shouldn't have called her in the first place, but if I can't relieve the tension that builds up in me it just grows. I lose control even faster, and so I try to pace myself and call a girl not as often as I would like, but not leave too much time either.

I left San Francisco after the police got too close. I wanted to start fresh, but still cannot shed this behaviour, and now it's the same again.

And it went more than wrong this time, too. Damned vampire ruined it. He is only half as old as I am, and no match for me in strength, but still he managed to make me run. Why am I running all the time, crawling away like some lowly fool? I have a right to be here just like everyone else. No law for protection of the youth applies to me, and still, when someone takes matters in their adult hands, I run. I should have stayed, should have confronted him in front of everyone. Show Cherish that I am a better man than this washed-up version that took her from me. People in the game hall were frightened of me. How I long to show them all my teeth, show them the freak I am. It was very satisfying to cut the throat of one of them with my talons and make him bleed. F-cking interloper!

How long do I have to stay here? I was out in the sun for too long, and I didn't feed. If I go out before the pier is empty, people will see me climb up, but worse, I will not be able to control my need to attack them. Don't want to draw any more attention. Let's wait until the park closes.

I have been waiting all my life, so I will be able to hold on tonight. So Cherish couldn't wait to get away from me once she knew what I was. Foolish girl. She is a hooker, so what did she expect? She should have been glad to get away with a bit of being nice and playing along. Instead she picked at her purse, clicked the ice in her tumbler and fumbled with her cell phone. Why do the girls dislike me whenever they lay eyes on me? Must be the damn zits. Every vampire I know heals easily from about everything, but the pimples I had when turning still come back. Damn hormones.

I must admit that it got easier with the Internet. I always tried out anything new I could get my hands on, miniature steam boats, radio, CB, jukeboxes, TV, video games. I am interested in technology, hey; I still remember when technology consisted of a wind driven water pump.  
Getting at girls, or anything, via Internet is easy. No more pretending I have to deliver a message to the girls on the street corner, or am buying beer and cigarettes for my father. I now can access anything I want with my fake ID and the money I accumulated over the decades. Getting that ID and the bank account was hard, though. Faking documents was easier when it was still paper. And looking 16 was no problem when they needed you to go to war, back then. But today they wouldn't even let me into the draft to go to Iraq. I was in the Ardennes in World War I, for f-ck's sake. They didn't want to hurt my feelings, though, said it was that I seemed to have problems with discipline. Hah.

It is almost midnight now; people are made to leave and the amusement park closes. I wait another half an hour, and then I carefully make my way back to the upper side of the planks. But just when I walk along the pier I smell this other vampire, Mick. He is still there, or came back. How in hell does he know I am still here? Must have a hell of a nose.

He shouts out to me "It doesn't have to be this way. I know what you're going through. I know what it's like." He turns the lights on again to find me. Hah! I like a little hide and seek if you give me the chance. Nice to play with someone again. Has been lonely lately.

Did he really mean that when he said it didn't have to be like this? I didn't have a choice, did I? She turned me, didn't ask if I wanted that, or wanted that but maybe later, she just did it. How could he make light of it by saying I should get over it and grow up? That's the whole point, isn't it, that she took away my chance to grow up. He is 30 years old, for f-ck's sake, and he talks as if he were an old man with lots of experience and wisdom. I hate it when old folks tell me what to do.

He said he understood that I was betrayed. How can he possibly understand? No one understands me. No one. No one.

I explain to him how I feel. I am stuck, I will never grow up, never be taken seriously, not by adults, not by women, not by other vampires. Never experience the kind of love grown-ups have when they decide to marry and have kids; that kind of all consuming love that makes you want to be with a girl, like in the movies.

I start the rollercoaster when I see him jumping on the rails, the thrill of having to evade the wagon will add a cool video game quality to the chase. I distract him with a question about love. Don't think I want to know the answer. Grown-ups are all the same.

Then I jump onto the rails behind him and hit him with a pipe, hard. I want to hurt him really bad, make him crawl like a worm from a bird. I need to kill him to safe my life, to protect my secret, but that doesn't mean I cannot enjoy it.

We have this cat and mouse game: he fleeing from me, then I running from him, grappling at each other, balancing precariously on the high yellow steel tubes. It's not as if I crash to death if I fall down, but it's still a thrill.

If someone watches in the low light we both must look almost the same: dark curly hair, black duster, jeans. He could be my older brother or my father. I never had a father. I don't want one. I bite him, and it's delicious. Anger, frustration, passion, angst, guilt, all mixed in his blood. I crave it. I suck faster, gripping the sleeves of his coat harder. He groans, his movements slow. Hah. Game over.

But balancing on the railing is not easy, and when he manages to shove me away I slip on a pool of his blood. The last thing I see is the roller coaster running towards me at an incredible speed, while I am stuck with my shoulders between the thin monorail and the steel service pipe. There's the word again: I am stuck. And I cannot get away any more. Rats.

I just hope he lost his head, too. Bastard.


End file.
